Groundwork is a pilot professional development and peer mentoring retreat for New Brunswick artists that will take place from July 3-10, 2026. We’re gearing up the planning and are currently looking for five peer mentors to participate in the programming!
The week-long retreat will have three elements: during the day, participants will take part in a number of professional development workshops in subjects such as marketing and branding, grant-writing, budgeting, and business development, run by industry professionals who have experience working with artists.
Spread amongst the professional development workshops will be a number of artist-run workshops: peer instructors will teach specific artistic, creative, or entrepreneurial skills in a collaborative group setting, followed by one on one peer mentoring opportunities.
The third element of the retreat is the informal networking opportunity. The retreat will be at Camp Pascobac, a true summer camp experience. Participants will all stay in bunkhouses on-site. This sustained proximity will lead to organic networking opportunities after the day’s sessions, when the participants eat dinner together, or sit around a campfire, talking about their lives and creative practices.
Call details:
Dates: July 3-10, 2026. We are looking for artists who can attend the full retreat, and take part in the other sessions as participants.
Location: Camp Pascobac, located on the Beautiful Belleisle Bay at 85 Pascobac Lane, Kars, NB
What we’re looking for: artists to offer peer-mentorship and artist-run workshops in professional development skills. We’d love to hear your ideas of what you can teach and mentor in! Possible ideas include: photographing your work, writing about your work, finding professional opportunities, marketing yourself, etc.
Remuneration: Each artist will receive $1520 for a half-day workshop (one hour-long workshop and 2-3 hours of one on one mentoring) and access to the full week of professional development and networking opportunities.
What’s not included: we’ll have a few communal meals, but otherwise you’re responsible for your own food for the week. Pascobac has a fully outfitted kitchen that can be used to cook!
To pitch us a peer mentorship workshop idea, click the button below